Development of English instructional model to reduce learning anxiety and enhance productive skills of graduate students in Thai higher education institutes

Abstract

This research aimed to (1) study English language anxiety of Thai graduate students based on different age groups, field of study, and type of higher education institution, (2) analyse the relationship between English language classroom anxiety and English language proficiency of Thai graduate students, (3) develop an instructional model to reduce English language anxiety and improve productive skills in English, and (4) propose practical guidelines for reducing English language classroom anxiety. The participants comprised of 270 graduate students from public higher education institutions, private higher education institutions, Rajabhat universities and Rajamangala universities of technology. The research instruments were the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), semi-structured interview form, ten lesson plans based on the instructional model to reduce English language anxiety and improve productive skills in English, and productive skills in English tests. Mean and standard deviation, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson's correlation, and Dependent Samples T test were used to analyse quantitative data. Thematic Analysis was used to analyse qualitative data. The results revealed that Thai graduate students had a moderate level of language anxiety. Students in private universities have a significantly higher average foreign language classroom anxiety level than those in Rajabhat universities, while there was no meaningful difference in language anxiety between different age groups and fields of study at .05 level of significance. The results also revealed a significant negative relationship between English language classroom and English language proficiency, whereby the lower the language proficiency, the higher the language anxiety. The English language classroom anxiety post-treatment mean score of the participants was significantly lower after receiving the treatment based on the instructional model, while the productive skills in English post-treatment mean score was significantly higher at .05 level of significance. The proposed practical guidelines for reducing English language classroom anxiety were highly feasible, and highly suitable for implementation.